Nelson Mandela Reveals Excerpts of Jail Letters in ‘Conversations with Myself’

Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela is releasing excerpts from an archive of diaries, letters, and private recordings in his upcoming memoir Conversations with Myself, which hits stores in 22 countries and 20 languages Tuesday. The Associated Press reports that Conversations is best read as a companion to his 1995 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

In the upcoming memoir, Mandela, 92, elaborated on his failed marriages to Evelyn Mase and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Allegations of violence within Mandela’s first marriage to Mase were contained in British writer David James Smith’s unauthorized biography Young Mandela, released earlier this year.

However, Mandela revealed that he “caught hold of her and twisted her arm” when she threatened to burn him with a red hot poker in order to “take the poker away.” Sacrificing family life to politics detrimentally effected his marriage to Winnie as well, and Conversations details her bitterness over raising their children by herself.

In an August 1970 letter to Winnie, he wrote, “I feel I have been soaked in gall, every part of me, my flesh, bloodstream, bone and soul, so bitter am I to be completely powerless to help you in the rough and fierce ordeals you are going through,” according to The BBC.